Originally Posted by
Worknomore
How flippin hard is it to properly use a quick release? If you can't handle it you should stay away from anything with moving parts.
Like just about everything, it's easy
IF you know how.
When I was in retail during the dark ages, QR was now to most Americans, as were derailleurs. Every sale was followed up with a demonstration of how to remove and replace a wheel, with emphasis on the QR, how to use derailleur gearing, and how to release and reset brakes.
Assuming people listened, that took care of our customers, but fully half the QR bikes that came in for repairs had the QR wound up like a wing nut. It was numbers like that that caused the CPSC to mandate the "OPEN/CLOSED" marking on the lever, and a warning/instrucion label to be affixed to the lever when the bike was sold new. But even with that they reasoned that a decent number of people would mess it up, and added the secondary retention mandate that eventually became the so-called lawyers' lips.
Those here who work in bike shops can confirm that after 50 years of QRs being common, a fair percentage of the repair bikes they see have the QR used wrong.